This time the fighter replacement programme is intended to replace both F-5 and F-18 aircraft.
New aircraft under consideration include the Airbus Eurofighter, Dassault’s Rafale, Saab’s Gripen, the F/A-18 Super Hornet from Boeing and Lockheed Martin’s F-35A, according to the March 23 list of requirements published by the defense department.
Swiss officials want to protect an area of 15,000 square kilometers with ground-based weapons, which is more than one-third of the country. They also seek to intercept targets up to 12 kilometers high and 50 kilometers away.
The envisioned concept of operations dictates that a fleet of roughly 40 aircraft will intercept those targets outside of the ground weapons’ range.
The ministry wants to purchase a single plane type under a “one-fleet policy.”
If Switzerland is looking for commonality economies to me the single aircraft most suited in performance and cost to replace both F-5 and F-18 is Gripen E. I don’t see how any of the other contenders can approach the procurement cost of Gripen E, nor the operating cost.
Sign In
March 29, 2018 at 12:04 pm